Launch of two new projects to increase independent news production around EU affairs

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Following an open Call for Proposals in 2016, two media consortia will receive support to inform Europeans on EU affairs from a pan-European point of view i.e. showing more than only a national perspective, by making innovative use of data-driven techniques. Support is given for the production and dissemination of information and content, while respecting complete editorial independence.The websites will be available in June (European Data News Hub) and in October (European Data Journalism Network), free of charge.

European Data News Hub

News agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) and Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA) have joined forces for the first time to build an online hub offering free news about EU affairs. The news agencies will launch the website in June 2017 together with Datenfreunde/Open Data City, offering a rich resource of downloadable content free of charge.

The website will focus on offering data-driven news with added-value packages including photo, video, audio, interactive graphics, still graphics and text stories in five languages (English, German, French, Spanish and Italian). Any interested media will be able to integrate these tools into their websites.

The hub, which will integrate social media, aims to inform and inspire debate about events shaping the lives of people in Europe and across the world, ranging from the state of the environment to the impact of migration or unemployment.

DPA, AFP and ANSA will distribute the content on their networks, reaching a worldwide audience including newspapers, TV and radio stations, mobiles, websites and data bases as well as governmental and international institutions.

Following the launch of the hub, other data journalism specialists and news agencies from across Europe will be invited to take part and contribute.

European Data Journalism Network

In October 2017, the European Data Journalism Network (EDJNet) will start producing, sharing and publishing data-driven content on European affairs across Europe and beyond. It aims at providing news media across Europe with trustworthy and rigorous content and support, and at providing the general public with valuable editorial tools for better understanding Europe.

The content produced by EDJNet will be available free of charge through a multilingual and open source website.

EDJNet has been set up by a consortium of European media outlets led by Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (Italy) and VoxEurop (France), in close partnership with three other outlets – Alternatives économiques (France), Spiegel Online (Germany), EUObserver (Belgium) – and three data-journalism agencies – Journalism++ (France); Local Focus (Netherlands) and Journalism Robotics (Sweden). Eight other media – two data journalism newsrooms (BIQdata at Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland and Pod črto in Slovenia) and six major outlets (Askanews and Internazionale in Italy, NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands, El Confidential in Spain, H-Alter in Croatia and Ouest-France in France) – already take part as EDJNet partners in the network, creating a potential audience of 70 million unique monthly viewers. The network will be open to additional partners.

To increase reporting around EU affairs, EDJNet will:

Produce data-driven investigations, in-depth articles, explanatory stories and features, as well as infographics, videos and short reviews in up to 12 languages.